Carbon nano-tubes (which may sometimes be hereinafter abbreviated as CNT) have been investigated as a potential material for nanotechnology with respect to the possibility of applications in a wide range of fields. For the applications thereof, there can be broadly classified into a method wherein single CNT itself is used as a transistor, a microscopic probe or the like, and a method wherein a multitude of CNTs are used collectively as a bulk such as an electron emission electrode, a fuel cell electrode or a conductive composite dispersing CNTs.
Where a single CNT is used, CNTs are added to a solvent and irradiated with a ultrasonic wave, followed by collecting CNTs dispersed individually such as by electrophoresis or the like.
On the other hand, with a conductive composite used in the form of a bulk, it is necessary to well disperse them in a polymer serving as a matrix material.
However, CNTs have a problem in that they are generally difficult to disperse. In ordinary composites, the composite is used while dispersing CNTs incompletely. Thus, it cannot be said that the performance of the CNTs is satisfactorily demonstrated.
Furthermore, this problem leads to a difficulty in various applications of CNTs. To avoid this, there have been extensively studied a method of improving dispersibility of CNTs such as by surface reforming, surface chemical modification or the like.
As such a method of dispersing CNTs, there has been proposed a method (see, for example, Patent Document 1) of depositing, on the CNT surface, poly((m-phenylenevinylene)-co-(dioctoxy-p-phenylenevinylene)) having a coily structure.
In this method, it is possible to discretely disperse CNTs in an organic solvent, and the state of a single CNT deposited with a polymer is shown. Nevertheless, after once dispersed to some extent, coagulation takes place and thus, CNTs are collected as a precipitate, unlike the case of storage where CNTs are kept dispersed over a long time.
In order to solve the above problems, there have been proposed a method of dispersing CNTs in an amide-based polar organic solvent with the aid of polyvinylpyrrolidone (see, for example, Patent Document 2) and a method of dispersing in an alcoholic organic solvent (see, for example, Patent Document 3).
However, the polymer used as a dispersant is characterized in that it is made of a linear polymer, and knowledge concerning highly branched polymers has never been made clear.
On the other hand, a method wherein attention is paid to a highly branched polymer for use as a dispersant of CNTs has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 4). The highly branched polymer is of the type that has branches on the skeleton as with the case of a star polymer, or a dendrimer and a hyperbranched polymer, which are classified into a dendritic polymer.
These highly branched polymers not only show such as specific shape as to have a relatively loose internal space and a particulate behavior because of the positive introduction of branches, unlike ordinary polymers that are generally in the form of string, but also have a number of terminal ends that can be modified by introduction of a variety of functional groups. When utilizing these features, there is some possibility of dispersing CNTs to a higher degree as compared with linear polymers.
However, in the technique of Patent Document 4 wherein the above-mentioned highly branched polymer is used as a dispersant, thermal treatment is necessary aside from mechanical treatment so as to keep CNTs in discretely dispersed state over a long time, and the dispersibility of CNTs has not been so high.
Further, in the technique of this Patent Document 4, the yield of preparing the dispersant is low, and it is necessary to use a large amount of a metal catalyst used as a coupling agent for improving the yield, so that there is concern that the metallic component is left in the resulting highly branched polymer, thus leading to concern that limitation is placed on applications in the use of the composite along with CNTs.